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What is parameterized types/generics? Explain how it eliminates the need for downcasting?

Answer 1

In Java, a generic type is a reference type that lets you define a class or a function without mentioning the actual type. These generic type is then replaced by the actual type while declaring an object of the class or using the method.

A parameterized type is an instantiation of a generic type with actual type arguments.

Now, we do downcasting when we want to change one type to one of its subtype. For example, we can downcast Long to Integer.

Now with generic types, we dont actually need to downcast, what we can do is provide the actual parameterized types while instantiating the generic types.